India's rt as and services trade

Mapping the Universe of Services Disciplines in
PTAs: The Indian Contribution
Biswajit Nag, IIFT, New Delh
Julien Chaisse, CU, Hong Kon
Debashis Chakraborty, IIFT, New De
Pacific Economic Cooperation Council and the Asian Development Bank Institute
Inaugural Conference
Chinese University of Hong Kong
1 -3 June 2011
Strategies to enhance Competitiveness and Facilitate
Regional Trade and Investment in Services”

Introduction
The growth of output in the service sector in India has been
spectacular in recent times which got reflected in a higher
contribution in the GDP. As a consequence of this, along with its
move in the WTO GATS negotiation, India has also plunged into
signing economic partnership agreements (EPAs).
India’s initial journey started with IT and ITES sector but now it is
ready to offer many services. India fairly maintains a liberal position
in services with restriction in mode 4 and now through EPA
negotiation it is gradually opening up further.
The paper analyses some of these agreements to understand the
offer lists comparing them sector by sector. It also identifies main
concerns of India in different sectors which it would like to address in
ongoing or future negotiation.
2

Some Facts
With the rising share of services in GDP, few developing countries
have come forward with spectacular export growth in services and
India is one of them.
Developing countries in Asia account for 75 per cent of all
developing countries’ services trade while 10 per cent and 15 per
cent are attributable to Africa and to Latin America and the
Caribbean respectively. Over half of developing country services
exports originate in only six countries, and the top 15 developing
country services exporters account for 80 per cent of all developing
countries services exports. Service sectors are also major
destination of inward FDI in these countries .
in recent times many developing countries are taking steps to
increase their service exports unilaterally or through regional
agreement on services.
3

RTAs in Services
Several factors may be identified which act as drivers for this endeavor.
• Services liberalization may be more easily negotiated between a
limited set of participants, particularly with economies at similar levels
of development with geographical proximity and cultural ties, as they
enable a greater degree of reciprocity between regional partners, thus
reducing the free-rider problem.
• Moreover, most of the cases, services negotiations are based on
positive list and through request and offer approach (though negative
list approach is not uncommon). Developing countries find the
approach more comfortable as harsh side of negotiations is generally
out of bound in case of services negotiation.
• Further recognizing the critical importance of services trade for growth
and development, many countries accelerated regional initiatives in
the search for services export opportunities and greater investment
attraction.
4

RTAs in Services: Developing Country Perspective
Services liberalization would be progressive, in principle based on the
positive list approach, adapted to the level of development of the
countries and regions concerned in overall terms and in terms of their
services sectors and subsectors, and to their specific constraints, and
underpinned by the principles, asymmetry and positive regional
discrimination.
A sound regulatory framework is considered important. Parties would
retain the right to regulate, and to introduce new regulations on the
supply of services within their territories in order to meet national
policy objectives.
Along with the liberalisation one of the major objectives of the
developing countries is to understand the simplification process
required for current regulatory structure and how to bring transparency
in the system. During the negotiation process, countries are exposed
to different ideas and a process to streamline the offer considering
domestic compulsions.
5

RTAs in Services: Benefits and Challenges to Developing
Countries
• Regulatory cooperation on mutual recognition or harmonization of professional
qualifications, licensing certification, technical standards, competition, and
provisions for labour mobility, are viewed to bring transparency in the regional
market for services.
• Regional services trade offers a supportive environment for national firms by
accelerating learning curves, building supply capacities and enhancing
international competitiveness.
• Regional services trade also plays a catalytic role in generating employment
and furthering the development of growing regional services industries and
firms.
• By allowing for economies of scale in the production of services, RTAs may
support the development of regional infrastructure in key sectors such as
transportation, communications and energy, environment protection, etc.
• However, the biggest challenge in services negotiation is the lack of
knowledge about the real market structure of services. In developing countries,
there exist lack of information about the markets and that creates uncertainty
about taking up any commitments and offering market access.
6

Contemporary Variations in PTAs Practice
RTAs have adopted distinct approaches in respect of (i) scope; (ii)
modalities for liberalization; (iii) depth of commitments; (iv) regulatory
cooperation; and (v) other areas of cooperation.
• Regarding the scope of the agreements, sectoral and modal coverage,
existing RTAs mostly provide universal sectoral coverage, with the
exclusion of sensitive sectors Liberalization may be based on a
progressive approach with an implementation period. In some sectors,
liberalistaion are offered in some segments and that may be through
only some modes.
• With regard to liberalization modalities, RTAs generally follow either a
negative or a positive list approach. The negative list approach was
adopted in NAFTA-type RTAs (CARICOM), Europe Agreements and
EU–Mexico, while the positive list approach was adopted in EU–Chile,
ASEAN, MERCOSUR, Japan–Singapore and United States– Jordan.
7

Contemporary Variations in PTAs Practice
• The definition of rules of origin for services providers is important in
determining the level and depth of regional services liberalization. As
regards to the depth of commitments, countries’ regional commitment as
well as general and sectoral disciplines provided under an RTA would
affect the extent to which RTAs can generate effective services
liberalization. Liberalization commitment may result either in standstill or
rollback of restrictive measures. This is important, since RTAs can go
beyond GATS commitment to provide preferential market access
conditions for regional partners
• Regarding the regulatory cooperation, measures on domestic regulation
such as qualification requirements also determine the level of
liberalization as it is deemed to be entry barriers in some cases, for
example trade in professional services. Harmonization and mutual
recognition are pursued under some RTAs (MERCOSUR, NAFTA
(accountancy, architecture, engineering), CARICOM), but often on a
best-endeavor basis. RTAs can contain market access commitments in
government procurement in services, monopoly and competition policy.
8

India’s Current PTA Involvements 9
Asia/Europe Africa Latin America
Operational
Indo-Lanka FTA Indo-Chile PTA
SAFTA
Indo-MERCOSUR
PTA
Bangkok Agreement (now
APTA)
India-Thailand FTA
India-Singapore CECA
India-ASEAN FTA
India-South Korea CEPA
India-Malaysia CECA (from July
2011)

India-Japan CEPA

India-Finland ECA
Ongoing Negotiations
India-GCC Framework
Agreement on Economic
Cooperation India-SACU CFTA
BIMSTEC FTA India-Mauritius CECPA
Indo-Israel PTA
India-EU
Analysis Stage
Australia, China, Indonesia, New
Zealand,

Growth Rate of India’s GDP and Service Sector GDP (%)
10
Source: Economic Survey 2010-11, Govt. of India
India’s Service Sector

Growth Rates within the Services Sector (%) at constant
prices
11
Eighth Plan Ninth Plan Tenth Plan 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10
Trade 9.1 7.3 9.3 9.7 6.5 7.2
Hotels &
Restaurant
11.2 9.3 9.0 13.1 -3.1 2.2
Railways 1.9 4.7 7.7 9.8 7.6 9.4
Other Transport 8.4 6.0 11.4 8.7 5.2 7.0
Storage 2.4 2.2 5.6 3.4 10.5 10.7
Communications 14.1 21.8 22.1 25.4 25.8 32.1
Banking &
Insurance
8.2 9.0 9.3 16.7 14.0 11.3
Real Estate &
Business Services
6.1 7.2 8.3 8.4 11.2 7.5
Public
Administration
3.9 8.5 5.2 7.6 20.2 13.0
Other Services 7.0 7.0 7.6 6.3 7.4 10.9
Source: For growth rates in various plans data taken from National Accounts Statistics, Government of India; several years, for other years
Economic Survey 2010-11, Govt. of India

Share of different services categories in GDP at factor cost
(current prices)
12

India’s Export of Services
13
GNIE: Govt. Not Included Elsewhere
Growth rate is calculated form values in US$

New Motivation for Service Exports
• India is increasingly specializing and exporting non-IT services.
Growth of exports in Business Services, Financial services,
Travel and Transport services were on the higher side.
• India is now capable of offering south-south solution of many
challenges in services sector with help of large pool of
professionals, indigenous technology and management
practices. Hence, it is seeking market access in developing
countries where there is a service market in which India can
compete.
• Though developed countries are major export destinations of
India’s services, India is now inclined to explore the possibilities
of exporting the variety of services to developing countries. Its
interest towards developing Comprehensive Economic
Cooperation Agreement (CECA) and Economic Partnership
Agreement (EPAs) are result of this.
14

India’s Initiative for EPAs
• The Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) between India and
Singapore was signed on 29th June, 2005 and notified to WTO in 2007. The agreement
has been reviewed couple of times.
• This was India’s first attempt to negotiate services in a PTA. It received fairly open
horizontal offer from Singapore but several crucial sectors remain protected.
• Singapore has opened most of the services under first 3 modes but mode 4 has been
kept unbound. Some services like urban planning, medical services, other business
services, geological services, mode1 has been kept unbound. National Treatment has
also limitation for surveying activities. In transport and retails mode 3 is unbound.
Courier services are highly protected in Singapore as both mode 1 and 3 are unbound.
Telecommunication services are subject to equity restrictions in Mode 3. Financial
service in Singapore is also subject to protections under mode 1 and 3. Hospital
services are also protected under mode, 1, 3 and 4. Legal service is unbound but
accounting service is open
• In some labour intensive services (both skilled and unskilled) India could not get much
market access. However, gain is substantial in tourism, audiovisual services etc. The
agreement has been made on the basis of reciprocity in the same sector. Sectors like
financial services, legal services etc are protected from both side. Learning about
Services negotiation and attempt to go beyond GATS have been two major knowledge
gain for India from this agreement
15
India Singapore CECA

• India and Korea Rep signed CEPA in 2009 and it is operational since January 2010.
The agreement has been notified to the WTO. Korea's CEPA with India is the first free
trade agreement with a BRIC member and for India also, it is the first such
agreement with an OECD member.
• The agreement allows Indian professional in areas such as IT, English teaching etc
to temporarily move to Korea for delivering the services.
• India has not made any offer in legal services but Korea has made restricted offer.
Korea’s offer in accounting services is more restricted compared to India’s. India
has offer in mode 1 and 2 of architectural services, engineering service, urban
planning etc and in some cases with little restriction in mode 3. Among other
professional services, India has fairly open offer with some restriction in mode 3
considering the public services offered in many areas and existing FDI norms.
Mode 4 is mostly restricted.
• Korea has much detailed offer in software and IT areas which are mostly open in
mode 1-3 but unbound in mode4. Mode 3 of Real Estate service is also open in
Korea. In many services, Korea has linked mode 1 and 3 entering the text ‘local
presence required’. Both the countries made detailed offer in telecommunication
highlighting the domestic laws and licensing system in case of mode 3
16
India Korea CEPA

• India has biggest opportunity in audiovisual services as Korea has offered entry in
all modes (with some restriction in mode 4) in production of movies, video recording
and distribution of that. India is looking for more foreign participation in construction
services and made liberal commitment but Korea has restricted offer. Similarly in
education services, India has made conditional offer but Korea has kept the sector
as unbound. Interestingly India has opened environmental services such as waste
disposal etc but it is unbound in case of Korea except technical testing areas.
• This is important to note that in case of India-Singapore CECA, Singapore opened
many sectors and restricted few strategic sectors and that too in mode 1 and mode
2 primarily and mode 3 in some cases. However, for India-Korea CEPA, Korea has
restricted large number of sectors while India has opened many sectors in line with
India’s unilateral liberalization strategy. Through this, India would like to send a
message about its commitment in liberalizing the services. Here, India’s strategy is
most likely to get technology and investment in several services sectors.
17
India Korea CEPA

• India-Japan CEPA has been signed in February 2011 and it is yet to be operational.
• Similarly, as in case of India-Korea CEPA, India has opened largely most of the
professional services except in case of mode 4. Construction, distribution,
environmental, tourism and hospital services are mostly open. Telecommunication
and financial services are unbound.
• In case of Japan’s offer India has received detailed commitment in legal services
with some restriction mostly as ‘exception’. Medical services are kept unbound but
in most of the other services India has been able to obtain large concessions
including commitments for providing greater market access. Japan has also
committed to cover the whole range of engineering services like computer
engineers, mechanical, electrical, industrial, design engineers and project
management specialists. Significantly, first time, Japan has agreed to grant
additional category of instructors for yoga practitioners, classical musical and dance
practitioners, chefs and English language teachers.
• It is important to note that gradually India is becoming more prudent in negotiating
services issues and it is able to derive better commitments from partners.
18
India Japan CEPA

• India and Malaysia singed Comprehensive Economic Co-operation agreement
(CECA) on 18the February, 2011. The agreement will come into force from 1st
July
2011.
• The agreement aims to enhance the competitive investment environment and
provide stimulus to FDI between the two partners. In last few years mutual
investment in each other’s economy has increased significantly.
• In services sector India received investment from Malaysia in areas
telecommunication, tourism and human resources. India also invested in IT ,
advertisement, audio-visual sector and allied financial services. The Joint study
group (JSG) also anticipates that investment will be there in other areas such as
medical, healthcare and diagnostic services, advertising, audio visual services,
construction and engineering services, distribution services, and accounting and
taxation services.
• For most of the professional services, India’s commitment is slightly more restrictive
compared to India-Korea and India-Japan CEPA. For example, most of the services
under R&D are unbound or subject to conditions. However, India has opened up
the real estate sector for Malaysian investment. Indian audio visual sector is kept as
unbound and other services such as telecommunication provide conditional and
restrictive entry. India has opened up environmental services but in hospital sector
it offered entry with equity cap
19
India Malaysia CECA

• Malaysian horizontal commitment explicitly put up the condition related to mergers
and acquisition, use of real estate, use of incentives provided by the government
etc. Though in most of the professional services Malaysia has offered a
commitment, it has put up conditions on both mode 3 and mode 4. Malaysia has
opened up medical services and expects that specialized services will be offered by
natural person.
• As in case of India –Korea CEPA local representation is required for offering the
service in Malaysia. In telecommunication, Malaysia has offered a liberal
commitment but for investment purpose only an existing company can be acquired.
This is true in case of audio visual and hospital services also. It is noteworthy that
Malaysia’s commitment in tourism sector is also restrictive as there are equity cap
and through locally incorporated JVs. However, for 4 and 5 star hotels these
restrictions are not there.
• Comparing India’s recent economic partnership agreements it can be said that India
got good offer from Japan and Singapore. For Korea, there are restrictions in
sectors in their offer and in case Malaysia’s offer we have noticed restrictions are
there even in mode 3. India has maintained its position by offering more number of
sectors but however, other countries are not reciprocating equally. Hence in
services, India’s gain from these FTAs will also vary widely.
20
India Malaysia CECA

This section analyses service sector regulations and barriers already
exist in many current and potential FTA partner countries based on
views expressed by service sector players in India
• Sri Lanka wants to look into mode 3 and mode 4 holistically as Indian investment
will be associated with Indian Professional but India is inclined to de-link
commercial presence from movement of natural persons. Lack of service
infrastructure as well as professionals provide opportunities to Indian companies in
Sri Lanka. India is interested in hospital, audio-visual service, alternative medicines
etc apart from large number of other services.
• Israel is a lucrative market for India to negotiate an agreement of trade in services.
India can import lots of sophisticated services such as high-end technology for
medical services, security services, irrigation services etc. In return, India can
negotiate for IT and ITes, consultancy, engineering, and architectural services.
Education and Construction services are also important from India’s point of view.
However, Mutual Recognition of degrees is an important issue.
21India’s Concerns and challenges in Service Sector Negotiation

• In case of Gulf cooperation Council (GCC), India’s main interest in Mode 4 as most
of the services is protected by various economic need tests. Apart from this there
are restrictions in mode 3 also which are protected by various ownership criteria,
citizenship criteria etc. India’s interest lies in construction, engineering, education,
health and tourism sector apart from IT/ITes. Though India has interest in financial
services but the sector is protected in case of restrictions in commercial presence.
• Services in EU are having numerous layers of regulation such at the EU level and
at the national level. Most of the services are covered by some Directives which
provides information about regulatory environment and movement of liberalization.
However, national regulations go beyond the EU Directive and EU has limited
success till now in streamlining national regulatory structure of its Members. Hence,
negotiation with EU needs to be done cautiously only looking at the market
structure of the target EU countries.
22India’s Concerns and challenges in Service Sector Negotiation

Nature of barriers in Service Trade
• Market Access Exemptions: Limitations on the number of service suppliers, value
of service transactions, quantity of services output, number of persons that may be
employed in a particular service sector and establishment of commercial presence
(the type of legal entity and the extent of foreign capital participation).
• National Treatment Limitations: Preference towards domestic players (sometimes
service providers are govt. owned monopolies)
• Non-Transparency: Non-transparency in service sectors are quite common. Most
of the time, it is difficult to find out the list of exact measures affecting the services
even in a developed country. (for example, in EU quotas in many services such as
film/movie quota follows both national policies and EU audiovisual directives)
• Domestic regulation: Well defined regulatory structure for service sector is
welcome. Apparently it is affecting both domestic as well as foreign suppliers
equally. However, in some cases, regulatory discretion goes against the foreign
players. For example, postal administration may be kept outside regulatory
structure and provided some advantages (tax relief).

Analysis of Sector wise issues of concern
• Banking Sectors
• Entry Barrier, authorisation, equity limit, barrires on day-to-day transactions,
branches recognised as foreign entity, access to fund more costly, limit on
expansion, limit on lending, etc. restriction on banks to go into other financial
services,
• Negotiation strategy: Mode 3 issues may be negotiated especially for issues like
number of branches, their legal entity, etc. India may seek better harmonisation of
rules like minimum capital requirement, etc. Visa and work permit related issues
may also be negotiated.
•Accountancy Services
• Issues related to MRA (requirement of various accreditations) , Licensing
requirement, Mode 4 etc. are major concerns. In some countries, citizenship and
residency criteria is also in place. Increasing Finance and Accounting Outsourcing
(FAO) opens the opportunity in Mode1 also.
• Strategy should be made to avoid articleship of Indian Accountants in foreign
countries. India must concentrate on Mode1 and 4.

• IT/ITes
• Major concerns are Visa requirements (longer time to get work permits),
investment regulations, tax discrimination, data protection and labour market
regulations. Indian companies interested in investment abroad are unable to bring
sufficient number of Indian workers.
• India’s interest in mode 1, 3 and 4. Issues require aggressive negotiation.
•Health Services
• Opportunities are there in telemedicines (bio-informatics), clinical trials and
research, medical tourism, collaborative research, back office support
( transcriptions, coding, etc. ). Several interrelated regulatory issues are matter of
concern from Indian perspective. MRA, data protection, visa requirements, etc.
Several countries would like to see mode 3 and 4 together but India wants to view
and negotiate them separately. In some countries Registration and work permits to
be taken separately. For Indian doctors it is a matter of concern. Insurance issues
for international patient is also matter of concern in case of mode 2.
• India is interested in all 4 modes. In several countries, limitation on mode 3 needs
to be negotiated.

• Telecommunication
• Role of regulators in telecom is very important. However, it remains inconsistent
in many countries especially in case of spectrum allocation, pricing and bundling of
services. Restrictions are there in the form of licensing, equity limits, limit on
resale, etc. Markets are often fragmented.
• Large investment is required and hence Govt. needs to understand the benefit of
commercial presence of Indian players outside. VSNL is now present in Sri Lanka,
Airtel in Africa . Their experience needs to be analysed.

Conclusion and Inferences
• RTAs are providing opportunities to countries to go beyond GATS as many developing
countries are involved in deeper integration through RTAs in services. These RTAs are
not only helping countries to access foreign markets but also developing capacities in
institution building which is required for deeper integration.
• Liberalisation process in services go hand in hand with several barriers which are
mainly in the form of quota, licenses, investment barriers, equity limits, restrictions of
movement of people and regulatory framework.
• Most services agreements focus on transparent business environment along with
liberalisation.
• Apart from services such as IT/ITes, Health, etc India has varied degree of
opportunities in several countries with which currently it is negotiating/intends to
negotiate trade agreements. Some of the other services where India has opportunities
are engineering, construction, tourism, accounting etc.

Conclusion and Inferences
•Mode 4 is an important issue only when there are large demand of skilled manpower in
the destination countries. Apart from this, India must look into mode 1 of several services
which can be provided through internet or telecommunication. India’s interest in mode 3
lies in several services such as in hotels, financial services, health and education.
• For different destinations, India’s interest lies on different sectors. MA exemptions and
NT limitations need to be tuned according to the threat and opportunity lies in each
country. India may seek for phased market access in some of the protected sectors
asking its RTA partners for timeline of some of the market access exemptions.

Thank You
Contact email:
biswajit@iift.ac.in

India's rt as and services trade

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